Condemning Trump’s travel ban

Speaking up at defence questions in Parliament, Nia Griffith MP called for robust UK Government response to Trump. She said:

“This weekend we have been shocked and appalled by the US President’s decision to impose a blanket travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations.To do this on Friday – Holocaust Memorial Day – only adds to the horror and outrage that we feel.

Has the Secretary of State for Defence made clear to his US counterpart that there is no place for such measures in the fight against terrorism? And such actions only inflame tensions and risk losing valuable allies, such as Iraq, who are with us in the fight against Daesh?

Mr Speaker, many of us have also been embarrassed and ashamed of our Prime Minister, who, for all her rhetoric on Britain leading the world, decided to hold Trump’s hand instead of holding him to account.

Her eventual limp reply of “we do not agree” was pathetic, especially when compared with the cautious Chancellor Merkel who spelled out that “even the necessary, determined fight against terrorism does not justify placing people of a certain origin or belief under general suspicion”

Can the Secretary of State assure the House, that if President Trump issues defence-related executive orders, which infringe international law and are an affront to humanity, that the UK Government’s response will be prompt, robust and unequivocal? “